


Blankets

by AutisticWriter



Series: Pride Month 2018 [25]
Category: Free!
Genre: Aromantic, Aromantic Hazuki Nagisa, Aromantic Ryuugazaki Rei, Asexual Character, Asexual Hazuki Nagisa, Asexual Ryuugazaki Rei, Cuddling & Snuggling, Ficlet, Fluff, M/M, Minor Nanase Haruka/Tachibana Makoto, Prompt Fill, Queerplatonic Relationships, Self-Discovery, Texting, pride month, prompt 25: blankets
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-25
Updated: 2018-06-25
Packaged: 2019-05-28 14:13:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 882
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15050897
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AutisticWriter/pseuds/AutisticWriter
Summary: Nagisa and Rei as they discover they are aromantic and learn the name for the kind of relationship they have: queerplatonic.





	Blankets

Rei isn’t his boyfriend. Yes, they’re in a queerplatonic relationship, but they don’t like to call each other boyfriends. Instead, Nagisa will tell you Rei is his queerplatonic partner, or QPP for short. And they’re in a QPR in the first place because their love for each other isn’t romantic in nature.

Nagisa and Rei came out as asexual halfway through their first year of high school, both having realised they weren’t developing the sort of feelings towards others like their friends were (such as Makoto and Haru, who have been infatuated with each other, but recently their relationship has taken a far more… intimate turn). And they started dating only a few weeks after Rei joined the swim club, but… Nagisa’s feelings confused him.

He knew he loved Rei, but he didn’t want to kiss him or make out with him or do… anything else with him. So finding out asexuality was a thing was a huge relief, especially when Rei found the label too. But things still weren’t right. Because Nagisa didn’t know if he had romantic feelings for Rei.

This was around the time he stopped thinking of Rei as his boyfriend, because he found the romantic connotations of the word weird. This was also around the time Nagisa went on Google and typed: **I’m asexual but I don’t think I get romantic feelings either.** And to his relief and amazement, a single word changed his perceptions of his sexuality.

**Aromantic**

He stared at the word, clicking the link and reading an article about something called the split attraction model (where your romantic feelings can be different to the rest of your orientation, such as being asexual and biromantic or aromantic and heterosexual). And he learned that there are people who don’t experience romantic attraction. People like him.

A bit more research (which he did whilst rocking back and forth in his chair and grinning) showed Nagisa a word aromantic people use to describe their close feelings for a person that aren’t romantic but also aren’t friendship, the aromantic equivalent of romantic love: queerplatonic.

And as he laughed, Nagisa sent Rei a text.

> **Me** : Hey, Rei.
> 
> **Me** : Rei?
> 
> **Me** : Rei?
> 
> **Rei** : Nagisa, you woke me up. Why are you awake at 3am? And why did you have to wake me up?

A glance at the clock showed Nagisa that it was indeed 3am. He giggled; he had always been a bit of an insomniac.

> **Me** : Sorry! But I’ve found something really cool.
> 
> **Rei** : Fine. What is it?
> 
> **Me** : You know we’re asexual? Well have you heard of aromantic?
> 
> **Rei** : Aromantic? No, I don’t think so. Let me do some research.
> 
> **Me** : You mean Googling it?
> 
> **Rei** : Yes.

It took several minutes for Rei to reply. Nagisa bounced his legs and tried to be quiet, lest he wake his parents up.

> **Rei** : I see. So you think this applies to us?
> 
> **Me** : Yeah! Isn’t it cool?
> 
> **Rei** : It certainly is interesting.
> 
> **Me** : Did you see the word queerplatonic too?
> 
> **Rei** : I did. I assume that must be the correct descriptor for our relationship?
> 
> **Me** : Yeah! You’re my queerplatonic partner!
> 
> **Rei** : Yes, I rather like the sound of it. Now can we talk about this in the morning? I want to go to sleep.
> 
> **Me** : OK. See you soon.
> 
> **Rei** : You too.

As promised, they had a talk about it before swimming practise that morning. And Nagisa gave Rei a hug. They were both so happy to know there was a name for their relationship. And soon the couple came out as aromantic too and happily called each other their queerplatonic partner.

They are now in their second year of high school, and Nagisa and Rei can be found lying on the floor side-by-side at Haru’s house. Haru invited everyone over for a sleepover, and they were all happy to come. So Gou has taken Haru’s bed, and the four boys are all on the floor in the living room. Haru and Makoto are fast asleep, cuddled up together and looking utterly adorable, whilst Nagisa and Rei are on their backs, holding hands.

“Are you still awake, Nagisa?” Rei whispers. As part of their very close QPR, the pair don’t use honorifics when talking to each other.

“No,” he whispers, and then has to muffle giggles.

Rei rolls his eyes. Without his glasses on, he can see even less of Nagisa in the near darkness, but Nagisa knows Rei can see his smile.

“But seriously, yeah, I’m awake. Why?”

“I was wondering if you would like to… cuddle,” Rei says, and his cheeks go red.

Nagisa shuffles closer. He and Rei don’t ever kiss, but they often cuddle. Although they’ve never cuddled in bed (well, on a makeshift bed on the floor) before.

“Yeah, that sounds nice,” he says. “Hang on a minute.”

And Nagisa gets off of his makeshift bed (a camping mat covered in a thick blanket), slides it right up to Rei’s bed, and gets back under the blankets, snuggling up to Rei. Rei puts his arm around Nagisa and they cuddle, covered in both of their blankets, so comfortable and warm.

When Nagisa awakes the next morning, the first thing he hears is Gou saying, “Aww, look how sweet they both look!” And he blushes bright red.


End file.
